“Yerushalayim I dream of you!” These words penned by Mrs. Dina Storch echo the yearning that fills my heart each day. “When I close my eyes I can see a beautiful sky a blossoming tree … Yerushalayim my heart is with you!”
When meeting a stranger the standard conversation opener is: “Where do you live?” My response is nonstandard. “I have a house in Far Rockaway but I live in Yerushalayim.” Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi taught us all “Libi b’mizrach — my heart is in the east and I am in the west.” It is so hard to live without your heart. I have a constant debate with people if my response is too unconventional. Perhaps people think it’s weird. Yet I feel it’s my reality.
The Torah tells us “The land to where you are coming is not like Egypt… it’s the land that Hashem seeks; the eyes of Hashem are always upon her from the beginning to the end of the year” (Devarim 11:10-12). Rashi asks “Doesn’t Hashem seek His whole world?” He answers “No just Eretz Yisrael!”
Through Hashem’s “seeking” and giving sustenance to Eretz Yisrael He sustains the whole world. Eretz Yisrael is the core upon which the universe rests and it’s in this land I’ve left my heart.
Create a free account to keep reading.
